Global convergence of a multidirectional algorithm for unconstrained optimal control problems

It is well known that among the current methods for unconstrained optimization problems the quasi-Newton methods with global strategy may be the most efficient methods, which have local superlinear convergence. However, when the iterative point is far away from the solution of the problem, quasi-Newton method may proceed slowly for the general unconstrained optimization problems. In this article an adaptive conic trust-region method for unconstrained optimization is presented. Not only the gradient information but also the values of the objective function are used to construct the local model at the current iterative point. Moreover, we define a concept of super steepest descent direction and embed its information into the local model. The amount of computation in each iteration of this adaptive algorithm is the same as that of the standard quasi-Newton method with trust region. Some numerical results show that the modified method requires fewer iterations than the standard methods to reach the solution of the optimization problem. Global and local convergence of the method is also analyzed.

Recently, Zhang (2006) proposed a three‐term modified HS (TTHS) method for unconstrained optimization problems. An attractive property of the TTHS method is that the direction generated by the method is always descent. This property is independent of the line search used. In order to obtain the global convergence of the TTHS method, Zhang proposed a truncated TTHS method. A drawback is that the numerical performance of the truncated TTHS method is not ideal. In this paper, we prove that the TTHS method with standard Armijo line search is globally convergent for uniformly convex problems. Moreover, we propose a new truncated TTHS method. Under suitable conditions, global convergence is obtained for the proposed method. Extensive numerical experiment show that the proposed method is very efficient for the test problems from the CUTE Library.

This paper presents a hybrid ODE-based method for unconstrained optimization problems, which combines the idea of IMPBOT with the subspace technique and a fixed step-length. The main characteristic of this method is that at each iteration, a lower dimensional system of linear equations is solved only once to obtain a trial step. Another is that when a trial step is not accepted, this proposed method uses minimization of a convex overestimation, thus avoiding performing a line search to compute a step-length. Under some reasonable assumptions, the method is proven to be globally convergent. Numerical results show the efficiency of this proposed method in practical computations, especially for solving small scale unconstrained optimization problems.

Nonlinear conjugate gradient methods for unconstrained optimization problems are used in many aspects of theoretical and applied sciences. They are iterative methods, so at any iteration a step length is computed using a method called line search. In most cases, the sufficient descent condition plays an important role to prove the global convergence of a conjugate gradient method. Due to its outperformance in practical computation, the Polak-Ribière-Polyak (PRP) conjugate gradient method is widely used for solving nonlinear unconstrained optimization problems. However, the sufficient descent condition of PRP has not established without line search yet. In this study, we established the sufficient descent condition without line search based on the conditions 0 < bkPRP £ x bkFR and 1 < bkPRP £mbkFR, where 0 < x < 1 and m > 1. As a result, we found that under certain conditions, the sufficient descent condition is satisfied when the PRP implemented without line search

In this paper, we propose a new class of adaptive trust region methods for unconstrained optimization problems and develop some convergence properties. In the new algorithms, we use the current iterative information to define a suitable initial trust region radius at each iteration. The initial trust region radius is more reasonable in the sense that the trust region model and the objective function are more consistent at the current iterate. The global convergence, super-linear and quadratic convergence rate are analyzed under some mild conditions. Numerical results show that some special adaptive trust region methods are available and efficient in practical computation.

Quasi-Newton methods for unconstrained optimization problems are considered for solving a system of linear equations Ax = b where A ∈ R n×n , Rank(A )= n, b ∈ R n , and x ∈ R n is the vector of unknowns. This problem can be converted into an equivalent quadratic optimization problem. Based on the observation that if H ≈ (A T A) −1 = A −1 (A T ) −1 then ¯ x = HA T b can be taken as an approximate solution of the problem, we propose a modification to the Quasi-Newton method. The modified algorithm incorporates the above observation. Global convergence is ensured by adding the steepest descent direction into the combination. Numerical experiments are also reported.

In this paper, we develop some three term nonlinear conjugate gradient methods based on the Hestenes–Stiefel (HS), the Polak–Ribière–Polyak (PRP) and the Liu–Storey (LS) methods. The proposed algorithms always generate sufficient descent directions which satisfy [Formula: see text]. When the Wolfe or the Armijo line search is used, we establish the global convergence of the proposed methods in a concise way. Moreover, the linear convergence rate of the methods is discussed as well. The extensive numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed methods.

In this paper, we present two nonmonotone versions of adaptive cubic regularized (ARC) method for unconstrained optimization problems. The proposed methods are a combination of the ARC algorithm with the nonmonotone line search methods introduced by Zhang and Hager [A nonmonotone line search technique and its application to unconstrained optimization, SIAM J. Optim. 14 (2004), pp. 1043–1056] and Ahookhosh et al. [A nonmonotone trust-region line search method for large-scale unconstrained optimization, Appl. Math. Model. 36 (2012), pp. 478–487]. The global convergence analysis for these iterative algorithms is established under suitable conditions. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficiency and robustness of the newly suggested methods. The obtained results show the satisfactory performance of the proposed algorithms when compared to the basic ARC algorithm.

This paper presents a new supermemory gradient method for unconstrained optimization problems. It can be regarded as a combination of ODE-based methods, line search and subspace techniques. The main characteristic of this method is that, at each iteration, a lower dimensional system of linear equations is solved only once to obtain a trial step, thus avoiding solving a quadratic trust region subproblem. Another is that when a trial step is not accepted, this proposed method generates an iterative point whose step-length satisfies Armijo line search rule, thus avoiding resolving linear system of equations. Under some reasonable assumptions, the method is proven to be globally convergent. Numerical results show the efficiency of this proposed method in practical computation.

In this paper, we deal with an obstacle avoidance control for a PVTOL (Planar Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft. One of the effective approaches is to formulate such a problem in the framework of optimal control with penalties in the cost functions, and thus any existing optimal control design method is applicable. Based on the ‘virtual space’ approach, we formulate the obstacle avoidance problem as an unconstrained optimal control problem. We design a transform function for making an unconstrained virtual space. The model of the PVTOL aircract is represented as a descriptor form. Then, we propose a solution to the descriptor form. The effectiveness of our approach is confirmed by numerical experiments.

In this article, without computing exact gradient and Jacobian, we proposed a derivative-free Polak-Ribière-Polyak (PRP) method for solving nonlinear equations whose Jacobian is symmetric. This method is a generalization of the classical PRP method for unconstrained optimization problems. By utilizing the symmetric structure of the system sufficiently, we prove global convergence of the proposed method with some backtracking type line search under suitable assumptions. Moreover, we extend the proposed method to nonsmooth equations by adopting the smoothing technique. We also report some numerical results to show its efficiency.

In this paper, by using a forcing function and the reverse modulus of continuity of gradient, we propose a generalization and development of the nonmonotone line search method for unconstrained optimization problems. The global convergence property of the new method is established under some reasonable conditions that are weaker than those of the existing nonmonotone line search methods. Furthermore, the proof of convergence is simpler than other methods.

There are two problems for nonconvex functions under the weak Wolfe–Powell line search in unconstrained optimization problems. The first one is the global convergence of the Polak–Ribiere–Polyak conjugate gradient algorithm and the second is the global convergence of the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno quasi-Newton method. Many scholars have proven that the two problems do not converge, even under an exact line search. Two circle counterexamples were proposed to generate the nonconvergence of the Polak–Ribiere–Polyak algorithm for the nonconvex functions under the exact line search, which inspired us to define a new technique to jump out of the circle point and obtain the global convergence. Thus, a new Polak–Ribiere–Polyak algorithm is designed by the following steps. (i) Given the current point and a parabolic surface is designed; (ii) An assistant point is defined based on the current point; (iii) The assistant point is projected onto the surface to generate the next point; (iv) The presented algorithm has the global convergence for nonconvex functions with the weak Wolfe–Powell line search. A similar technique is used for the quasi-Newton method to get a new quasi-Newton algorithm and to establish its global convergence. Numerical results show that the given algorithms are more competitive than other similar algorithms. Meanwhile, the well-known hydrologic engineering application problem, called parameter estimation problem of nonlinear Muskingum model, is also done by the proposed algorithms.

A new approach is presented for solving long-horizon, constrained optimal control problems by using the mixed coordination method. The method was originally developed for unconstrained optimal control problems, with key ideas including time decomposition, mixed coordination and parallel processing. In extending the method to constrained problems, constraints on state and control variables are relaxed by using the multiplier method. For a given set of Lagrange multipliers, the problem is unconstrained and is solved by using the mixed coordination method. The Lagrange multipliers are then updated in a simple and efficient way. Three problems, including one with nonlinear system dynamics and constraints, and a hydroelectric scheduling problem with ten reservoirs, are tested. Results shows that the new approach is numerically stable, and significant speedups are obtained in a simulated parallel-processing environment. The method can be easily extended to handle unpredicted changes during the online operation phase of a system. >

In this article, we try to proposed a new conjugate gradient method for solving unconstrained optimization problems, we focus on conjugate gradient methods applied to the non-linear unconstrained optimization problems, the positive step size is obtained by a line search and the new scalar to the new direction for the conjugate gradient method is derived from the quadratic function and Taylor series and by using quasi newton condition and Newton direction while deriving the new formulae. We also prove that the search direction of the new conjugate gradient method satisfies the sufficient descent and all assumptions of the global convergence property are considered and proved .in order to complete the benefit of our research we should take into account studied the numerical results which are written in FORTRAN language when the objective function is compared our new algorithm with HS and PRP methods on the similar set of unconstrained optimization test problems which is very efficient and encouragement numerical results.